Wiper blade

ABSTRACT

The present invention provides a wiper blade, by balacing the opposite characteristics between the ease of operation and the cleaning force, the overall shape of the wiper blade is inclined laterally with elasticity in accordance with the moving direction of the blade mounting means for ease of operation, and the contact portion of the wiper blade for performing the cleaning is capable of maintaining an angle close to a right angle with respect to the cleaning surface, so that the wiper blade is also excellent in cleaning force.

CROSS-REFERENCES TO RELATED APPLICATION

This is a continuation of U.S. application Ser. No. 15/623,357 filedJun. 14, 2017, which is a continuation-in-part of PCT/KR2015/005634filed Jun. 5, 2015, which claims priority from Korean Patent ApplicationNo. 10-2014-0183026 filed Dec. 18, 2014 and Korean Patent ApplicationNo. 10-2015-0052142 filed Apr. 14, 2015, and further claims priorityfrom Korean Patent Application No. 10-2016-0075623 filed Jun. 17, 2016and US Provisional Application No. 62/427,142 filed Nov. 28, 2016. Thecontents of each of the prior filed priority applications areincorporated herein by reference.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates generally to the wiper blade, by banacingthe opposite characteristics between the ease of operation and thecleaning force, the overall shape of the wiper blade is inclinedlaterally with elasticity in accordance with the moving direction of theblade mounting means for ease of operation, and the contact portion ofthe wiper blade for performing the cleaning is capable of maintaining anangle close to a right angle with respect to the cleaning surface, sothat the wiper blade is also excellent in cleaning force.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Generally as shown in FIG. 1, wiper blade 1 is mounted at blate mountingmeans 10 and operated to clean pollution P′ at the cleaning surface S.

In the operation of the wiper blade, in order to move and operatesmoothly in accordance with the movement of the blade mounting means 10,it is efficient that the wiper blade has a shape such that the wiperblade inclined laterally with elasticity in accordance with the movingdirection of the blade mounting means.

On the contrary to this, when the cleaning force of the wiper blade istaken into consideration, the cleaning force is excellent as the wiperblade maintains an angle close to the cleaning surface S at rightangles. When the blade mounting means 10 has a relatively small angle θ1(typically 5 to 30 degrees) with respect to the cleaning surface S byelasticity along the moving direction of the blade mounting means 10 asshown in FIG. 1, the wiper blade comes into surface contact with thecleaning surface S, therefor the cleaning force is deteriorated and theresidual contamination P′ remains.

Most of the existing inventions do not match the oppositecharacteristics between the ease of operation and the cleaning force.The prior art “Blade for automobile wiper (Korean Utility ModelKR20-1998-021842A)” only discloses two blades projecting downward fromthe blade and connected to the windshield so as to perform directwiping.

Another prior art patent, “Wiper Blade (Korean Registered PatentKR10-0488972B)” only discloses an insertion groove formed in alongitudinal direction on the upper end of both side faces of the upperend of the wiper blade, and contacts the window of the vehicle at thelower end of the insertion groove. And the auxiliary wings are formedintegrally downward on both sides of the wing at the lower portion ofthe wiper blade in the vehicle wiper blade in which the wings forremoving are integrally formed.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Accordingly, in order to overcome the problems of the prior art, is anobject of the present invention to provide an wiper blade, by banacingthe opposite characteristics between the ease of operation and thecleaning force, the overall shape of the wiper blade is inclinedlaterally with elasticity in accordance with the moving direction of theblade mounting means for ease of operation, and the contact portion ofthe wiper blade for performing the cleaning is in line contact with thecleaning surface S, while angle to the mounting part is maintained bymeans of 4 link sturucture provided by the angle maintaing bendablepart, so that the wiper blade is also excellent in cleaning force.

In acoordance with an aspect of the present invention, the above objectcan be accomplished by providing an wiper blade made of elasticmaterial, which comprise: a mounting part which is mounted at a blademounting mean; a angle maintaing bendable part continuously formed fromthe mounting part and have one or more longitudinal internal cavity; anda contacting edge continuously formed from the angle maintaing bendablepart and line contact to a cleaning surface to clean the pollution whileangle to the mounting part is maintained by means of 4 link stuructureprovided by the angle maintaing bendable part.

Further, in at least one embodiment, the internal cavity has rectangularshape and has rounded subsidences at each corners of the rectangularshape.

Further, in at least one embodiment, the outer surface of the contactingedge has the coating layer.

Further, in at least one embodiment, the contacting edge is composed oflow friction silicone rubber.

Further, in at least one embodiment, the wiper blade further comprising:a porous sorption member installed to lower part of the contacting edge,and the porous sorption member temporarily absorb the pollution and thendischarge the pollution again by pressing.

According to the present invention, the opposite characteristics betweenthe ease of operation and the cleaning force can be harmonized, theoverall shape of the wiper blade is inclined laterally with elasticityin accordance with the moving direction of the blade mounting means forease of operation, and the contact portion of the wiper blade forperforming the cleaning is in line contact with the cleaning surface S,while angle to the mounting part is maintained by means of 4 linksturucture provided by the angle maintaing bendable part, so that thewiper blade is also excellent in cleaning force.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a schematic view showing the problem of prior wiper blade.

FIG. 2 is a sectional view of a first embodiment of present invention.

FIG. 3 is the perspective view of the first embodiment of presentinvention.

FIG. 4 is a sectional view of a sencond embodiment of present invention.

FIG. 5 is a schematic view showing the operation of the first embodimentof present invention.

FIG. 6 is a sectional view of a third embodiment of present invention.

FIG. 7 is a sectional view of a fourth embodiment of present invention.

FIG. 8 is a schematic view showing the operation of the fourthembodiment of present invention.

The reference numbers and characters for the drawings and the followingdescription are provided below:

S: cleaning surface

P: pollution

10: blade mounting mean

100: wiper blade

110: mounting part

111: clamping member

120: angle maintaing bendable part

121: internal cavity

122: rounded subsidence

130: contacting edge

131: coating layer

140: bending neck

141: surporting protrusion

142: surporting arm

160: porous sorption member

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

According to the preferred embodiment of the present invention, a wiperblade 100 is made of an elastic material and comprises a mounting part110, an angle maintaining bendable part 120 and a contacting edge 130 asshown in FIG. 2. The elastic material constituting the wiper blade 100may be made of rubber (NR, CR, NCR, EPDM) or a silicone material.

As shown in FIG. 2, the mounting part 110 is mounted to the blademounting means 10 and may be manufactured in various forms according tothe structure and shape of the blade mounting means 10.

As shown in FIG. 2, the angle maintaing bendable part 120 iscontinuously formed from the mounting part 110, and has one or morelongitudinal internal cavity 121.

According to the internal cavity 121, the angle maintaing bendable part120 has a structure similar to a 4-bar linkage structure that connectsthe mounting part 110 and the contacting edge 130. Therefor, havingadequate strength due to elasticity, the relative angle of the mountingpart 110 and the contacting edge 130 is limited and relatively wellmaintained as shown in FIG. 5. And the overall shape of the wiper blade100 is inclined laterally with elasticity in accordance with the movingdirection of the blade mounting means 10.

In order to the angle maintaing bendable part 120 has a structuresimilar to a 4-bar linkage structure, it is preferable that the theinternal cavity 121 has a rectangular shape as shown in FIG. 2. In orderto the angle maintaing bendable part 120 has a structure more similar toa 4-bar linkage structure, it is preferable that the internal cavity 121further has rounded subsidences 122 at each corners of the rectangularshape as shown in FIG. 4. According to the rounded subsidences 122 whichhas been formed at the portion corresponding to the connection betweenthe links in the four-bar linkage structure, the portion correspondingto the connection between the links becomes more freely rotatable,therefor the angle maintaing bendable part 120 have an operatingcharacteristic that is more similar to the 4-bar linkage structure.

Meanwhile, in order to make a structure similar to a four-bar link withan elastic material, the angle maintaing bendable part 120 may havesuitable hardeness for both elasticity and to perform a function of alink arm. So, both side portions of that the internal cavity 121 are notexcessively bent or pressed and contracted while having appropriatestructural rigidity. To achieve that characteristics, the thickness t ofboth side portions of the internal cavity 121 may be in the range of 0.2to 1.2 mm and the angle maintaing bendable part 120 may have the shorehardness A type of 40 to 90.

If the thickness t of the both side portions of the internal cavity 121is thinner than said range of thickness or the hardness of the of theboth side portions of the internal cavity 121 is smaller than saidhardness, the structural strength of both side portions of the internalcavity 121 is weakened and excessively bent or pressed to contract, Sothat the contact angle of the contacting edge 130 becomes small as inthe case of the prior art. On the contrary to this, if the thickness tof both side portions of the internal cavity 121 is thicker than saidrange of thickness or the hardness of the of the both side portions ofthe internal cavity 121 is larger than said hardness, the structuralstrength of both side portions of the internal cavity 121 becomesstronger than necessary, the operation of the connecting portionsbetween the links can not be smoothly implemented.

The structural strength of both side portions of the internal cavity121, which functions as two link arms connecting the upper side and thelower side, has a significant influence on the length in the verticaldirection (that is, the vertical height of the internal cavity 121). Ifthe vertical height of the internal cavity 121 becomes larger thannecessary and the ratio of the height of the internal cavity 121 to thethickness t of both side portions of the internal cavity 121 becomeslarge, the structural strength of both side portions of the internalcavity 121 is relatively weakened, so that the wiper blade 100 isexcessively bent or pressed to be contracted, so that the contact angleof the contacting edge 130 is reduced, as in the prior conventionalwiper blade. On the contrary to this, if the vertical height of theinternal cavity 121 is smaller than necessary and the ratio of theheight of the internal cavity 121 to the thickness t of both sideportions of the internal cavity 121 becomes small, the structuralstrengths of both side portions of the internal cavity 121 arestrengthened more than necessary, there is a high possibility that theoperation of the connection portion between the links in thefour-linkage structure can not be smoothly implemented. Therefore, whenthe thickness t of both side portions of the internal cavity 121 is inthe range of 0.2 to 1.2 mm, the height of the internal cavity 121preferably ranges from 2.0 to 6.0 mm.

According to another embodiment of the present invention, the anglemaintaing bendable part 120 may have a plurality of the internal cavity121 as shown in FIG. 6.

By plurality of the internal cavity 121, the angle maintaing bendablepart 120 has a structure similar to mulitiple 4-bar linkage structure.Therefor having adequate strength due to elasticity, the relative angleof the mounting part 110 and the contacting edge 130 is limited betterand relatively well maintained and the overall shape of the wiper blade100 is inclined laterally with elasticity in accordance with the movingdirection of the blade mounting means 10.

The contacting edge 130 is continuously formed from the angle maintaingbendable part 120 as shown in FIG. 2, and line contact to a cleaningsurface (S) to clean the pollution (P) as shown in FIG. 5. As discrivedabove, while angle to the mounting part (110) is maintained by means of4-bar linkage sturucture provided by the angle maintaing bendable part(120), the contacting edge 130 can make a line contact with the cleaningsurface S with a relatively large angle θ2. Therefore, the contact areawhere the contacting edge 130 contacts the cleaning surface S is keptsmall, so that the frictional force due to the operation is reduced, andthe pressing force against the cleaning surface (S) becomes ratherstrong thus the cleaning force for wiping the pollution P becomeexcellent. Meanwhile, the cross section of the contacting edge 130 canbe a shape of part of a polygon or a shape of double or triple blades.

As shown in FIG. 6, the outer surface of the contacting edge 130 mayhave the coating layer 131 to increase the strength while reducingfriction. As the material of the coating layer 131, it is possible toselect one of various synthetic resins or silicone. In one embodiment,it is preferable that the coating layer 131 is made of a siliconematerial or a Teflon material having a low frictional force. The coatinglayer 131 may be formed by bonding a high-strength film.

As shown in FIG. 2, unlike the mounting part 110 and the angle maintaingbendable part 120, the contacting edge 130 may made of a low frictionsilicone material. In this case, it is preferable that the wiper blade100 is manufactured such that the wiper blade 100 is extrusion-moldedand then cutt. Moreover, the mounting part 110 and the angle maintaingbendable part 120 are extrusion-molded simultaneously with thecontacting edge 130 which consist of another characteristic siliconematerial.

It is preferable that the wiper blade 100 is inclined at a predeterminedangle in accordance with the operation of the reciprocating wiper sothat the wiper can operate more smoothly. For this purpose, a bendingneck 140 may be formed between the mounting part 110 and the anglemaintaing bendable 120 as shown in FIG. 4. Moreover, the predeterminedangle may be in a range of about 5 to 30 degrees so that the angle θ2 atwhich the contacting edge 130 contacts the cleaning surface S can bemaintained at a relatively large angle. In the pursuit of this purpose asupporting arm 142 is further formed at the lower end of the mountingpart 110 and a supporting protrusion 141 is further formed at the upperend of the angle maintaing bendable 120 as shown in FIG. 4.

Threfore, as shown in FIG. 8, when the bending neck 140 is bent at thepredetermined angle according to the operation of the wiper, thesurporting protrusion 141 is contacted with the supporting arm 142 andprevent more bending, thus the angle θ2 at which the contacting edge 130contacts the cleaning surface S is limited to be maintained at arelatively large angle, while the wiper blade 100 is being inclined by apredetermined angle corresponding to the operating direction.

As shown in FIG. 7, the porous sorption member 160 installed to lowerpart of the contacting edge 130, and the porous sorption member 160 ismade of porous sorption material, temporarily absorb the remainingpollution P which can not be removed by th contacting edge 130, and thendischarge the pollution (P) again by pressing when the direction ofoperation is changing.

The porous sorption member 160 may be formed in various sizes and shapesdepending on its operating characteristics. When the porous sorptionmember 160 is emphasized to maintain the state where the porous sorptionmember 160 is firmly mounted on the contact part 130, the poroussorption member 160 is inserted to lower part of the contacting edge 130by a predetermined depth (d) as shown in FIG. 7. The predetermined depthd may be less than half the vertical height of the porous sorptionmember 160 in order to ensure a sufficient compression effect so thatthe pollution absorbed by the porous sorption member 160 can beefficiently discharged again by compression.

When the porous sorption member 160 focuses on the operatingcharacteristic in order to enhance the effect of absorbing the residualpollution, the porous sorption member 160 has narrow width and a longlength.

1. A wiper blade comprising: a mounting part which is mounted at a blademounting means; an angle maintaining bendable part continuously formedfrom the mounting part, and having one longitudinal internal cavity,wherein the internal cavity has a rectangular shape; a side portion onboth sides of the internal cavity has a same thickness between 0.2 mm to1.2 mm; wherein the internal cavity has a height between 2.0 mm and 6.0mm; and wherein said angle maintaining bendable part is made of elasticmaterial having a shore hardness A type of 40 to 90; and a single flatrectangular contacting edge continuously formed from the anglemaintaining bendable part and line contact to a cleaning surface (S) toclean the pollution (P) while angle to the mounting part is maintainedby means of 4-bar linkage structure provided by the angle maintainingbendable part.
 2. The wiper blade of claim 1, wherein an outer surfaceof the contacting edge has a coating layer.
 3. The wiper blade of claim1, wherein the contacting edge is composed of low friction siliconerubber.